Jane Jacobs Quotes

It’s never too expensive to do the things that absolutely have to be done.

I have to buy three of everything. It doesn't make any sense, but I have to. I'm worried I might lose it, and if I lose it, then I have a backup and then I have a backup to my backup.

Some things are worth the splurge.

There is no re-inventing the wheel.

What is necessary is possible, what we want is expensive. What is unnecessary is unlikely.

About the use of language: it is impossible to sharpen a pencil with a blunt axe. It is equally vain to try to do it with ten blunt axes instead.

I feel like I'm wasting time if I repeat myself.

It's not what you pay a man, but what he costs you that counts.

If you invest in something a little more expensive with longevity, you'll use it more.

If you had to buy a new plane every time you flew somewhere, it would be incredibly expensive.

The compromise will always be more expensive than either of the suggestions it is compromising.

Or the Department of Education and another ministry were worried about duplication of effort, so what did they do? They set up two committees to look into duplication and neither knew what the other was up to. It really is a world beyond parody.

Don’t keep dogs and bark yourself.

The President is asking our business men to economize and become more efficient, while we continue to be the most inefficient and expensive barnacle that ever attached itself to the ship of state.

I don't like to repeat myself.

One of the hardest areas is duplication; everyone knows there's lots of duplication in government. But when you ask someone, 'OK, name two programs that are duplicative,' typically there's a long pause.

What is the point of one guy developing a 1.3 engine, and another guy a 1.4? What are you getting for this? And the answer is nothing: a total waste of capital.

It seems kind of nutty to send up something new when there's something already there that can do the job.

I'm not cheap but I'm not unaffordable.

You turn down work you feel you've already done.

When you are Uber, what we care about is the customer experience of getting somebody safely, cheaply, efficiently and reliably from where they are to where they want to go.

First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?

The Space Shuttle is the most effective device known to man for destroying dollar bills.

If a thing can be done adequately by means of one, it is superfluous to do it by means of several; for we observe that nature does not employ two instruments [if] one suffices.

What is necessary is never a risk.